The Ritz Lutheran Villa and Mitchell Nursing Home’s new development is being launched and is being re-branded as the West Perth Village, Board Chair David Murray and Administrator Jeff Renaud announced last week.

“The new name was developed during a series of community meetings over the last several months as the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (MOHLTC) approved the project to go ahead,” said Murray in a press release. “Now we have to raise our share of the $25 million needed to complete the work.”

To that end, the Board has pledged a $117,000 donation commitment, and will be added to the existing $1.2 million in donated funds through the Missing Link campaign initiated years ago.

“The new name for Ritz Lutheran Villa and Mitchell Nursing Home positions this as a community effort and we thought the best way to commemorate that was by giving as a community of Board members and staff,” Murray said.

West Perth Village Seniors’ Community will replace the long-term care capacity at Ritz Lutheran Villa and Mitchell Nursing home.

Phase One of the development is scheduled to begin next spring.

“We have a lot of work to do prior to getting shovels in the ground,” said Renaud. “We have to raise another $3.7 million in our community to fulfill our commitment to the Ministry. It’s really exciting.

“We have to respect and entrench the legacy of the Ritz family and of everyone in both facilities over the years,” Renaud added. “We have to create a Phase One that is inclusive and welcoming, and that honours a tradition of compassionate care here.”

“The government is looking to set new standards for long-term care facilities,” Murray added.

“We either protect our capacity here close to home by coming together as a community now, or we run the risk of it not being here in the long run,” he said. “That’s something I can’t imagine. West Perth Village gives Perth County seniors the opportunity to grow old close to home in a respectful country setting. It’s hard to imagine anything better.”

Stakeholder meetings were held late last month to gather input and acted as a follow-up to community meetings that were held in March.

“The beauty of it is everybody is enthusiastically engaged from the community,” Renaud said of the stakeholder meetings.

Working drawings for the redevelopment have been formally submitted to the MOHLTC.

“That’s exciting as we’re moving forward in terms of what we want to build,” Renaud added.

The proposed 72,000 sq. ft. two-story redevelopment was made official in January after six years of lobbying. The facility will be built on the current Ritz Villa campus and would include 128 long-term care beds as well as converting the current Villa home for the aged into 40 independent retirement living units.

The existing 48 beds at the Mitchell Nursing Home on Napier Street, which the Ritz Villa purchased more than a decade ago, would move to the new facility and it would close and the five-acre property sold.

The Ritz Lutheran Villa was opened 45-years ago, in 1974, and had a capacity of 80 beds. Founded by Charles Ritz, the $1,245,673 facility was financed by $100,000 by Ritz, a provincial grant, a Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation mortgage and individual donations.

West Perth Village Seniors’ Community information and online fundraising can now be accessed at ritzlutheranvilla.com/west-perth-village